Top 10 tillage and planter trends of the year

Variable-rate tillage

The ability to vary the amount of tillage in a field on the go according to conditions is a concept that is getting some play. Salford offered a glimpse of this technology at this year’s show. One of its Independent Series toolbars designed for surface tillage is equipped with shanks that can be lowered hydraulically from the cab in areas of the field where the ground is compacted. The driver engages the shanks when he or she sees problem areas such as ruts or sticky spots.

Salford marketing manager Anson Boak says farmers are already experimenting with the technology using the company’s hydraulic shank kits, which it has been selling for 18 months. The process could be automated with the addition of variable-rate maps or sensors. “We’re not to that point yet,” Boak says. “But there is no reason you couldn’t with effort.”

Tom Draper, marketing manager with AGCO, says this is a concept the industry has talked about. “We like to think about it in terms of smart tillage,” he says. “Are there needs that could be addressed by changing depth, downpressure or blades in one area of a field versus another?”

Pictured: Salford showed how farmers can vary the degree of tillage from the cab with its new hydraulically driven shank kits.

Vertical tillage

After two years of skyrocketing growth, vertical tillage remains one of the biggest markets, according to some manufacturers. Units are made up of rows of shallow disks or coulters designed to cut and size crop residue at fast operating speeds.

That basic design hasn’t changed much, but the tools are being used in new ways, such as incorporating wheat and cover crops or applying fertilizer, says Curt Davis, marketing manager for Kuhn Krause.

Salford’s Boak says farmers are using its vertical tillage tools for fertilizer application. “That market is growing rapidly for us,” says Boak. On display was its newest unit, the I-Series applicators, which pair up a vertical tillage machine with an air cart or anhydrous shanks for dry, liquid or anhydrous formulations.

Boak says another trend he has seen in vertical tillage is a consistent climb in size. “From 2003 to 2006, our biggest selling vertical tillage units were 24 ft.,” he says. “The next three to four years the size went up to 30 ft. Now we are up to selling a lot of 41-ft. machines and bifold units that transport easier here in the Midwest.”

Pictured: The new Sunflower 6631 vertical tillage line from AGCO was on display at National Farm Machinery Show this year. The company is offering seven models. The unit shown includes an interesting new feature - electronic control.

Incorporating shanks

Residue management remains one of the biggest challenges for farmers, say manufacturers. Some are finding that the sliced-up residue from vertical tillage is not decomposing as fast as they’d like due to limited mixing with soil. Compaction is another problem, a result of wet fields last spring. Some are looking at more aggressive forms of tillage, along the lines of disk harrows, combination disk rippers, and in some areas like Minnesota, moldboard plows, to fight herbicide-resistant weeds.

Narrower transport widths

A number of tillage manufacturers came out with folding models this year to make road transport safer as farms get more spread out. Landoll has shored up its Weatherproofer line by 5 feet on its new 7- and 9-shank folding units, which fold down to a narrow transport width of 14.5 ft. “This size is the ideal width because it is roughly the same size as a row-crop tractor and smaller than most four-wheel-drive tractors with duals,” says Jamie Meier, Landoll Corp.

Kuhn Krause introduced a special hydraulic system on its new 8210 series disk harrows that retracts the wing wheels to make the implements narrower for transport. The two largest models, the 41- and 44-ft. Quad-Fold models, fold to a width of 17 ft. 7 in., which matches up with a 450-hp tractor.

Other manufacturers also showed models that fold.

Pictured: Jamie Meier, Landoll Corp., shows the new 7- and 9-shank Weatherproofer models that fold down to a narrow 14.5-ft. transport width.

Strip tillage

Several manufacturers this year anticipate a rise in strip-till sales as a way to reduce input costs. “If corn prices drop, people start to tighten their belts and ask, where can I save some money?” says Nick Jensen, vice president of marketing for Thurston Mfg./Blu-Jet. “Strip till helps them do that.”

Jensen says the advantage of strip till is that it combines several operations in one pass, including tillage and nutrient application, which lowers fuel costs. It also makes more efficient use of fertilizer by optimizing the time and placement of application.

Kuhn Krause’s Davis says the market is still growing but has not reached maturity yet, because the practice entails an intensive management change.

“You have to include GPS guidance and rethink fertilizer management and your planting systems. So it is a big step to change from no-till or conventional till to strip till,” he says. He expects the market for these tools will increase because of the yield advantage strip till has shown in dry years.

Pictured: Strip-till units like this one Curt Davis shows from Kuhn Krause are expected to see increased demand as margins tighten.

Planter that run on tracks

Planter companies report that a growing percentage of planters sold are going out with tracks, which were first introduced as a factory-installed option by White Planters at the 2011 Farm Progress Show.

Don Niehs, general sales manager for Monosem, estimates 40% of its large-acre customers, with 3,000 or more acres, are opting for tracks. “Compaction has become a big issue, especially with the wet springs we have been having,” says Niehs, field manager. “So we’ve developed better flotation systems on our planters in the form of tracks and wider tires and grip tires to provide for a lighter footprint. Tracks and wider tires really make a difference.”

Hydraulic downforce

Kinze and Precision Planting were among the companies that demonstrated an alternative to springs to keep row units operating at an even depth across the planter frame. Hydraulic cylinders automatically apply down pressure to sections of the planter frame to balance up and down movement with the changes in terrain.

Kinze parked one of its planters on a hill, with each section straddling the ground despite the difference in elevation. For years the company has offered hydraulic weight transfer on its planters, a Kinze-exclusive feature. Precision Planting showed its new hydraulic downforce system called Delta Force that applies pressure to each individual row unit. Companies that offer hydraulic downforce systems say they are more responsive and quicker to react than springs. Plus, they allow for both up and down movement, which makes for a smooth ride.

Pictured: Hydraulic weight transfer systems like this one from Kinze keep row units running at the same height in uneven terrain.

Variable rate planting

VRT has been offered for years but is just now taking off as seed prices continue to rise and farmers find that not all areas of a field provide the most bang for the buck. Companies were showcasing variable-rate seeding packages that change seeding rates on the go and by the row based on prescription maps made ahead of time. Raven is using VRT to change hybrids in a research project with South Dakota State University.

Pictured: Raven’s Viper 4 computer and a new Multi-Hybrid planter controller varies the type of seed you plant on-the-fly according to changes in field conditions.

Need for speed

Speed was a topic that came up numerous times. Manufacturers say there’s a limit on how big planters and tractors can get and still be practicable. And in order to cover these larger farms, planters will need to go faster than the typical 5 to 6 mph.

“It has always been said that speed kills,” says Bill Preller, Case IH. “You can’t have a high-quality stand and plant really fast. But we’ve designed our Early Riser planters to run 1.5 mph faster than other planters and still maintain high-quality stand.”

Case IH showed a new software program called Accustat on its new 5 series planters that lets operators dial in speed based on conditions to ensure they don’t over- or under-plant.

Different companies make different claims. But all agree that higher planting speeds are in the future.

“All sorts of physical dynamics have to change to make planters go faster,” says Luc van Herle, director of global sales and service at Kinze, which last year launched a planter that it claims can go up to 8 mph with 99.5% accuracy. Van Herle reports a need for stronger, more flexible frames, hydraulic downforce systems on the mainframe and more responsive metering systems.

Tom Evans, Great Plains, says higher speeds also will depend on having the right tillage equipment.

“If you don’t have the perfect seedbed for the planter to run on, speed does not matter,” Evans says. “It will hurt you on ear count and yield because of poor seed placement. Torque curves on tractors will have to change to allow for more gears in the 8 to 12 mph range.”

Pictured: The new Early Riser 5 series planters are designed to run faster with a revamped meter drive, bulk fill and seed monitoring system.

Electric drives

Electric motors on planters may be on their way to becoming mainstream. Horsch, Kinze and Precision Planting had units set up to demonstrate how the technology works. Small, electric motors are used in place of chains and sprockets to drive the seed meters.

Electric motors have several advantages over traditional mechanical or hydraulic drive systems, say Drew Gerber, product marketing manager with Horsch. He says they require less maintenance, provide more accurate seed placement and will allow for infinitely varied seed rates on each individual row.

“Contour farming, or curve compensation, will be coming soon,” Gerber says, referring to the ability to precisely adjust metering of seed during slowdowns on turns or hills. “That is what we think about when adding electric-driven motors.”

Turn compensation for contour farming is available on the market from Precision Planting.

If you want to plant a 35,000 population at 8 mph, you need a “Swiss-watch-type meter,” Kinze’s van Herle says. “The only way you can do that accurately, consistently and fast enough is with electric motors. Mechanical motors have mechanical limitations. Hydraulic motors have time constraints and can’t react quickly enough. Electric-driven meters are the way to go if you want that kind of repeatable precision and accuracy.”

At last year’s fall farm shows, we found a number of noticeable trends in equipment manufacturing. Tillage equipment took center stage at the demonstration fields, where showgoers got a look at new blades and configurations to handle tougher crop residue.

Planters got a lot of attention, too, because of all the talk about variable-rate seeding and even seed placement. Many manufacturers had planter meters set up to show new wiring and designs to ensure those things.

Interviews with manufacturers revealed some common themes in both product categories. Many equipment makers are cautiously optimistic about the market because of speculation about falling corn prices. But they are still riding the wave of a two-year stretch of high machinery sales, still well above the five-year average for tractors and combines, the two product categories tracked by Ag Equipment Manufacturers.

Some clear trends emerged among the bustle of customers, based on walk-bys and interviews with exhibitors. Here are 10 things you’ll see in planter and tillage equipment offerings this year.